Vittorio De Sica, Luchino Visconti, Federico Fellini, Anita Ekberg, Sophia Loren! It’s just about every Italian star and director from the 60s all come together for one fantastical film about modern love and lust. Split into four shorter segments, this three-and-a-half hour epic is probably more Italiano than the average viewer is able to mango in una sitting. For me, the first segment is by far the best. It’s pure Italian neorealism and it’s perfect. The other segments are each entertaining in their own way, but they feel more like vignettes than fully fleshed out stories. The first segment is absolutely worth watching and if you’re going to start, you might as well watch all the way through the end.

Charles Bronson has a death wish, but not the “I wish someone would just kill me” kind of death wish, it’s more like the “I wish I could kill other people with impunity” kind of death wish. Anyway, watching this movie gave me of two reasons to be glad I wasn’t alive in the 70s. First, interior decorating was criminally bad. Second, unless the police caught a criminal in the act, they were apparently shit out of luck. Don’t be fooled, this is no action movie, it’s brooding, dark and surprisingly more interested with the mental state of its protagonist that with exciting chase scenes and shootouts. By no means a terrible movie, but considering the wealth of vigilante movies we have today, pretty forgettable. Watchable.

P.S. Look out for both Jeff Goldblum and Denzel Washington in both of their first on-screen performances!

If you’re like me, you knew the soundtrack to this film long before you actually saw the film. It’s just so good! Tom Berenger, Glenn Close, Jeff Goldblum, William Hurt, Kevin Kline and the oh-so attractive Meg Tilly star in this film about a group of friends who spend a weekend together after the funeral of their friend Kevin Costner (who doesn’t appear in the film). For someone like me who didn’t experience the 60s, it’s a little hard to really relate with the disconnect these characters feel between their free-loving selves of the past and their bourgeois selves of the present, but the solid Motown soundtrack and the more universal themes of finding purpose in life, growing older and maintaining your values, still ring true today. Worth watching.

Michael Caine joins the rest of the Muppets cast in this often silly and ultimately enjoyable version of A Christmas Carol. Re-watching this movie as an adult made me realize that Scrooge’s transformation is more than a little abrupt, but for kids, it’s probably just the right combination of simplicity and melodrama. Gonzo and Rizzo the Rat are hilarious as Charles Dickens and his sidekick and the songs by Paul Williams are pretty good on the whole, too. Worth watching.

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Take Shelter is a movie about a guy who starts to develop schizophrenia, believing that the end of days is coming. He starts building an elaborate underground shelter for him and his family, and ends up loosing almost everything in the process. Movie explores the themes of how mental disorders are dealt with in modern day society, end of day Christian biblical themes, and of course how to build a large scale shelter. I really liked this movie, the acting was great, the story was beautifully told, and the visuals were pleasing. I give it a high Worth checking out.

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First Frozen and now Maleficent? Feminists have taken over at Disney and I love it! Angelina Jolie plays the fairy wizardess queen Maleficent who placed the original spell on Sleeping Beauty in Sleeping Beauty. But now, Disney tells Maleficent’s side, answering the question, why are you hating on some little girl, Maleficent? Misunderstood and multi-faceted, Mal is a character who you really feel for. The original fairy tale is a horrific story of lust and rape, so Disney will never actually get around to telling the real thing, but this version is at least more true to the actual themes of the original. Worth Checking Out

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The average person uses 10% of their brain, imagine what she could do with 100%. Ok, let me try… hmm… wait… waaaaait… I… I… can’t. Since I can only use 10% of my brain, it is impossible for me to imagine what it would be like to use it all. But, it would probably be spectacular. What it wouldn’t be is anything like this movie though. Lucy is a film that is not that good. The writing and directing are, in fact, bad, which in turn, led to bad acting (well, given the circumstances, I think they did the best they could). The only thing that was good was the special effects, but now-a-days, thats not really all that special. This movie tries to be epic and unique but fails miserably, and if your in a silly mood, hilariously! For example, at the end, ScarJo turns into a super computer and gives MorFree a sparkly USB stick with all the knowledge of the universe on it. But, why didn’t she just put it in the cloud? You gotta back that shit up, ScarJo! Also the 10% thing is a myth. Barely watchable!